Coal Black
by Evvy
Summary: This is a tale about a boy, whose name is Severus. A boy who paid a high price for being alone and for his life being saved.


Once upon a time there was a boy named Severus

TITLE: Coal Black

AUTHOR'S NAME: Ev vy

PAIRING: Guess who

SPOILERS: It makes sense if you've read all four books

DISCLAIMER #1: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

DISCLAIMER #2: The tale is a part of collective knowledge of the majority of literate people.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'd like to thank: Lynn, Lyle, Syn, Riley and especially Victoria H, whose challenge prompted me to write this story. The story is an intentional re-write of a popular tale.

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COAL BLACK

Once upon a time there was a boy named Severus. Oh, I know what you would say, Severus is not a good name for a fairy tale hero, but it really was his name. When he was very little he lost both his parents. And, yes, this is going to be a very sad story. So he had only his godfather to take care of him, but his godfather was a very busy man and although he loved the boy very much he could not spend as much time with the boy as the boy really needed. So the boy was very sad, and he was growing sadder and sadder. But as years passed, the sadness began to evolve, and by the time the boy was to begin his education, it became anger and bitterness. And it is not good for such a young boy to be angry and bitter, but Severus was.

And it was getting even harder for him, because his godfather got married. He got married to a witch, and by the way, the boy's godfather was a great wizard, the greatest of his time. Severus would eventually become a wizard like his godfather, but he did not look up to his godfather anymore. For how could he look up to someone who abandoned him? However, the witch did not see that and she was jealous of any sign of attention that the boy was getting from his godfather. Although she was hiding her feelings in front of her husband, she did show them to Severus. And the older the boy was the more annoyed he was becoming with her behavior.

But she was even more angry then he was, as every day she looked into her looking-glass and the looking-glass was constantly confirming that her husband loved the boy more than he loved her. And so she was even more spiteful towards the boy than he was to her. Finally she decided to tell him, that his godfather had never loved him and he was taking care of the boy only because of pity. And pity the boy hated most of all. He felt like she had destroyed all his feelings he had for his godfather. He decided to run away from his guardian, and it was to be an ultimate escape. He run down the castle staircases. There were many, many staircases as the castle was very, very old and very, very big.

He finally reached his room which was located very deep in the dungeons. He approached his desk and took out a long and sharp dagger. It had belonged to his father, and before that to his father's father, it was even older than the castle. But it looked surprisingly sharp and new. But the boy didn't know that the dagger was magical and anyone who tried to take their own life with it would survive, but be punished even more severely. They would feel that people they love pity them for what they are, because they weren't even able to take their own life in a finite way. And pity the boy hated the most.

Severus didn't know what was going on around him for a few days, but when he finally opened his eyes he saw his godfather on his bedside. The godfather's eyes were filled with compassion, but the boy mistook it for pity, and pity he hated the most. But what really hurt was the unmistakable pity in the eyes of the godfather's wife. The boy was already filled with self-loathing, and he was not able to endure it anymore. Severus wanted to punish someone for all his suffering. He decided he would punish the witch, as down deep in his heart the love for his godfather remained hidden. And although the boy was very angry with the godfather, he blamed everything on the witch. Nonetheless, he stopped speaking to his godfather, and when his godfather was looking at Severus with love and compassion, all that the boy saw in those eyes was pity. But the boy wasn't going to act in haste, no, he was going to plan everything carefully.

When he was back among his schoolmates, he knew that they knew what had happened to him. But he saw no pity in the seven pairs of eyes, as his seven closest schoolmates were unable to feel pity. But the boy was glad, he felt good among his schoolmates, as pity he hated the most. His schoolmates took care of Severus, they taught him everything they thought he would need. And he needed to know everything it would take to punish the witch. 

And finally he learned a spell he needed. He began to follow the witch, he was very careful so she didn't notice anything unusual. And when the right moment came the boy did not hesitate and put the spell on the witch. She lost her breath and fell down. The boy was just about to laugh when he saw his godfather, who quickly cast a counter-spell and the witch was able to breathe again. The godfather turned round and went away without saying a word. The witch looked at the boy and told him for the second time that the boy's godfather had never loved him and only pitied him. The boy was very angry, but he didn't say anything, he just stared at the witch with his coal black eyes.

He went back to his schoolmates and told them what happened. All seven of them said that they would teach him even more and he will be able to punish the witch in the end. So the boy learned and learned, and he was very skilled at potion making. Every potion that his seven schoolmates were able to make, he was able to make even better. So he began to make his own potions, and some of them were deathly poisonous. And he made one poison which was extremely dangerous, it didn't have any taste or smell, but the moment it touched the skin it began to work. But it didn't kill immediately, no, it would be too easy. It was killing slowly, the more poison was absorbed through the skin the quicker the person died. But Severus waited for the right time to use the poison. And the time came.

Just before Christmas, the boy went to a nearby village and bought a beautiful tortoiseshell barrette, it was a present for his godfather's wife. But what a present it was supposed to be. The boy carefully dipped the barrette into the poison, took it out and left to dry. Then he wrapped the barrette in beautiful paper and had it delivered as a Christmas gift for the witch. And she was delighted with this present, she immediately put the barrette in her hair. The poison began to work. 

The witch liked the barrette very much so she used it every day, and she touched it often. Within a few weeks she became deathly pale and thin. And her husband was constantly at her bedside. One evening, quite by accident, he crushed the barrette she liked so much. The witch cried over the barrette and told her husband that it was her favorite Christmas gift. She seemed to think that this gift came from her husband, but the wizard was too clever to correct her mistake and he promised to buy her a new one, even more beautiful that the one destroyed.

The boy was very angry with his failure to punish the witch, but he was more than willing to try again. Because the witch was looking at him with pity in her eyes, and pity the boy hated most of all. His godfather avoided looking at the boy and although the boy was hurt by that he wouldn't admit that even to himself. 

Severus began to work on a new potion, a potion which would make other people think that the person who took the potion was dead. And the only way to reverse its effect would be to give the person something they really needed. It was a very dangerous potion, as nobody really knows what other people need and it would take a long time to find the right thing. When the potion was complete, the boy tried to find the best way to give the potion to the witch.

The witch liked apples very much and everybody knew that. Each morning a very beautiful apple, ripe red, was delivered to her room. Severus managed to sneak into the kitchen. He found the most beautiful-looking apple and injected the potion inside the apple, he was sure that next morning the witch would eat the apple. When the next morning came, the boy noticed that the witch brought the apple to the dining-hall. And he heard her say to her husband, that it was the most beautiful apple she had ever seen, so she decided to give it to him as a token of her love. 

Severus was petrified with shock, he never intended to hurt his godfather. He was looking so intently at the witch that she finally noticed. She wasn't as clever as her husband but she indeed saw that there was something wrong. She pointed the boy's behavior to her husband, and he laughed. Maybe the boy wants to eat the apple. He summoned Severus and asked him whether he wanted to eat the apple. The boy answered that he did not, but answered a bit too quickly. The witch placed her gaze on Severus and asked, but why didn't he want the fruit. It was so beautiful as if it was pleading to be eaten. The boy denied to have had a want to eat the apple, but the witch insisted. The godfather looked at the boy suspiciously, he was surprised that Severus did not want to eat the fruit. And the boy did not endure his godfather's gaze. He took the apple, looked at his godfather for the last time and bit into the apple. He fell as if dead. The godfather ran up to the boy. He was a clever wizard so he was able to notice that the boy was not dead, but he was so grief-stricken that he did not figure out what had happened to the boy and how to reverse it.

The godfather was not able to keep this seemingly dead body in the castle. It was too painful to him to watch the boy. Severus seemed so innocent and fragile. The godfather decided to put the body of the boy into a coffin made of glass and put the coffin in the middle of the forest near the castle. All people were afraid to go into the forest as it was inhabited by various dangerous creatures. The godfather put many spells on the coffin so the forest creatures would be unable to break it. But there was someone who was not afraid of the forest.

He came across the coffin quite by accident and was very surprised to see it there. He managed to break every spell and opened the coffin. The boy seemed beautiful to him, so innocent and fragile, so he kissed the boy softly on the mouth. And the boy opened his eyes, for the man who opened the coffin was a very powerful wizard. Somehow he knew how to reverse the effect of the potion, he knew what the boy really needed. The boy needed love, acceptance and appreciation of his talents, and Severus knew he would get all that from this strange man. The only thing he didn't know, was the price he would eventually pay.

The boy looked at the man and said, thank you. And the man welcomed him and bid the boy to follow him. Yes, my Lord, answered the boy.

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A/N: For some of you the last fragment may look familiar. Victoria H pointed out to me that it reminds her of George Herbert's "The Collar". I knew the poem before I wrote the story, but I have completely forgotten its content. However, it might've been lurking somewhere in the back of my mind, but the similarity is completely coincidental and unintentional. Although, it gives the story even more meaning.


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